diff --git a/l2ork_addons/tar_em_up.sh b/l2ork_addons/tar_em_up.sh
index bd1298cf8359973d76cfb0b55023d0902931ac69..744dc9b04988ffebc8fc170ef56ff799326d05f7 100755
--- a/l2ork_addons/tar_em_up.sh
+++ b/l2ork_addons/tar_em_up.sh
@@ -106,6 +106,10 @@ if [[ $os == "darwin" ]]; then
 	os=osx
 fi
 
+# Automagically disable Debian packaging when the Debian packaging tools are
+# not available.
+test $deb -eq 0 || test -x /usr/bin/dpkg-deb || pkg=0
+
 # XXXTODO: If no build target has been set, we should pick one by default.
 
 # Fetch the nw.js binary if we haven't already. We want to fetch it even
diff --git a/packages/linux_make/Makefile b/packages/linux_make/Makefile
index e19036680c8c3a3060326ae41d7b32be703571cc..86f62d8efda0d1d2005575aea679f7473707e316 100644
--- a/packages/linux_make/Makefile
+++ b/packages/linux_make/Makefile
@@ -141,7 +141,9 @@ debstage: $(bindir)
 # Pd-related scripts
 	#install -p $(scripts_src)/pd-diff $(DESTDIR)$(bindir)
 
+ifeq ($(PACKAGE_TYPE),deb)
 deb: DEB_BUILD_ARCH := $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
+endif
 deb: DEB_PD_VERSION := $(shell echo $(PD_VERSION) | sed 's|\(.*\)-l2ork-\(.*\)|\1-\2|')
 deb: debstage
 # delete these since they are provided by the 'puredata-utils' and 'cyclist' package